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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29158938">Where's Your Heart?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereverMySITakesMe/pseuds/WhereverMySITakesMe'>WhereverMySITakesMe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But The Necessary Knowledge Now Exists, Dream Communication, F/F, Fix-It of Sorts, Medical Torture, No Fixing Actually Occurs, so...yay?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:20:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,427</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29158938</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereverMySITakesMe/pseuds/WhereverMySITakesMe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahsoka dreams of the friend she lost, undergoing some awful torment. Soon, she finds out the meaning of these visions and it's worse than she could have imagined.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Where's Your Heart?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/10811847/chapters/23986818">Hamartia</a>.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At night, Ahsoka dreamed of Barriss. She could hardly avoid it. The fact that someone she’d been so close to to betray her so horrifyingly was near impossible to process, so she didn’t. Her years of combat experience, not to mention her Jedi training, had taught her to push away the things her still-young mind couldn’t handle. The technique worked, for the most part. It was only at night when her shields cracked and she was tormented by the things her waking mind refused to process. But that was fine. She knew how to live with that without letting it get in the way of her day to day life. She could even kept herself from screaming when she woke.</p><p>The strange thing was the nature of the new dreams. Instead of reliving Barriss’ betrayal, or the moments of closeness they had shared before it, Ahsoka saw new things, things which made no sense.</p><p>Every dream took place in the same place. Barriss was lying on her back with metal restraints holding her onto the slab, surrounded by medical droids and with wires and tubes snaking out of her arms and chest. Her mantle was nowhere to be seen but she was still wearing her underhood. Exactly how she had been dressed at Ahsoka’s trial, except that her shirt had been torn away to allow easy access to the skin of her chest.</p><p>Time was passing in the dream-world at the same rate it was in the real world, judging by Barriss’ worsening appearance. Her skin paled, apart from the dark rings of exhaustion around her blood-shot eyes, and the bones of her face were becoming increasingly obvious. She was rapidly losing weight that her slender frame couldn’t spare. The only constant was the look of agony on her face. Whatever was being done to her, it was bad.</p><p>Sometimes, Ahsoka was simply watching from above as the droids worked on their prisoner. But sometimes she <b>was </b><span>Barriss. Sharing her pain, feeling </span><span>each</span><span>’ ragged, painful </span><span>breath </span><span>as though </span><span>it</span><span> her own </span><span>and</span> <span>shredding her own wrists against the restraints as her body bucked and thrashed, trying to fight the agony that lit up her veins.</span></p><p>
  <span>But e</span>
  <span>very night, no matter what perspective Ahsoka took</span>
  <span>, the pain reached </span>
  <span>a</span>
  <span> sicken</span>
  <span>ing</span>
  <span> crescendo, </span>
  <span>and </span>
  <span>Barriss </span>
  <span>would </span>
  <span>cry out</span>
  <span>, her ragged and ruined voice filling the small room as she </span>
  <span>screamed</span>
  <span> a single word. “Ahsoka!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahsoka </span>
  <span>always </span>
  <span>woke sick with guilt. </span>
  <span>Even after everything that had happened between </span>
  <span>the two of them</span>
  <span>, it hurt to see </span>
  <span>Barriss</span>
  <span> in so much pain. Hurt even more to see her beg for help that Ahsoka couldn’t give.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahsoka desperately</span>
  <span> hoped it wasn’t real. </span>
  <span>Perhaps it </span>
  <span>was</span>
  <span> nothing more than her battered mind berating her for letting Barriss fall, not seeing the pain she </span>
  <span>must have</span>
  <span> been in. Perhaps it had already happened. Perhaps it would happen </span>
  <span>or was happening </span>
  <span>now</span>
  <span>, but Ahsoka was missing some </span>
  <span>crucial</span>
  <span> piece of information- </span>
  <span>it wasn’t really Barriss, she had volunteered herself for the procedure, it was </span>
  <span>proper</span>
  <span> medical care for some awful ailment. </span>
  <span>Ahsoka</span>
  <span> knew how Force visions could mislead. </span>
  <span>B</span>
  <span>est to try to ignore the dreams, painful as they were, until she knew </span>
  <b>how</b>
  <span> she could act, let alone whether she should. </span>
  <span>It was the easy, cowardly way out but she insisted to herself that it was the right one.</span>
</p><p>More precious time passed and Barriss faded further before Ahsoka finally got her answers.</p><p>This time, the dream was different. Ahsoka found herself in a liminal space, made up of shifting shades of white. Even the ground was white. If there was a ground. Ahsoka didn’t know whether she was standing or suspended in the air. If there was air.</p><p>In front of her, Barriss was sitting-or floating- in a meditative pose, legs crossed, her hands on knees and eyes closed. She was wearing her mantle and undamaged clothes again and she looked healthy, perhaps even healthier than when Ahsoka had last seen her in reality.</p><p>“If I could have chosen anyone other than you, I would have” Barriss spoke without opening her eyes.</p><p>Ahsoka’s mood darkened and she frowned “Did you bring me here just to apologise?”</p><p>“No. There’s something I have to show you. I had to figure out how to create and send a specific message and to tell you everything you are about to see is true. It’s exactly as bad as it looks”</p><p>There was a pause before she said “I <b>am</b> sorry. But you have no reason to care about that”</p><p>Ahsoka did care. It mattered why Barriss had done what she did and whether she regretted it. But she sensed there was something more pressing going on “Was it you who sent me the rest of the dreams?”</p><p>“Yes. Until now all I could do was show you what was happening to me in the moment”</p><p>A chill washed over Ahsoka “You’re being tortured? That doesn’t make any sense”</p><p>“I know”</p><p>Tremors ran through the world, making the edges of Barriss’s body ripple and blur into her surroundings. Ahsoka felt the world around her begin to dissolve, and her mind start to drift away, back to reality.</p><p>Barriss inhaled deeply. The breath moved in a wave through the world towards her, making it ripple once more and then stabilise. For a moment, as the wave passed through her, Ahsoka felt the strain that Barriss was under to keep the vision together.</p><p>“We don’t have much time” Somehow, Barriss’ voice was calm and free of pain. “Just know that this is true and that you have to do something. You have to” She repeated</p><p>Before Ahsoka could speak again, everything around her dissolved again and in a blink she found herself sharing Barriss’ body on the now familiar slab. She wasn’t in pain or injured so the vision must come before the others she had experienced.</p><p>A figure moved into Barriss field of vision, leaning over her. Chancellor Palpatine.</p><p>Barriss had been brutally tortured as a Republic prisoner. This was bad. No wonder she had contacted Ahsoka. Someone had to put a stop to this</p><p>As the vision continued things only got worse.</p><p>“Hello, Miss Offee” The chancellor smiled “That was quite the stunt you pulled. A shame you didn’t quite get away with it”</p><p>Barriss strained against her restraints “Chancellor please, you have to listen to me! Something is very wrong with the Jedi, no one understands but it’s true. They have to be stopped!”</p><p>“I assure you child, I understand very well.” He kept smiling, jarringly “In fact, I understand it better than you. Far better”</p><p>Something seemed to peel away and the reality of the being in front of Barriss was revealed. Not on a physical level, but deeper, on the level of the Force. She could sense that he was no ordinary human but a monster. A being of pure darkness and evil, who’s presence filled the entire room, pressing against her mind like a crushing weight.</p><p>The man- if he could still be called that- continued “You can take pride in this: you were right. Completely right. And soon all the Jedi will be kicking themselves for not listening to you” His smile became wicked “Of course, by that point you probably won’t feel up to gloating. For some time now I’ve been hoping to have access to someone like you. There are certain questions about the Force that I would like answered. I think that you will be able to help me”</p><p>There was the sound of a droid powering up and mechanical arms entered Barriss’ field of vision. One of them stabbed a needle into her arm and she felt fluid spread through her veins. It burned.</p><p>Palpatine moved away, folding his arms behind his back “Try not to die too fast, little one. It would be most inconvenient to have to find somebody else”</p><p>Barriss couldn’t scream. She didn’t dare. She was completely at the mercy of a monster who was more than willing to tear her apart. Planning to, even. All she could do was try not to provoke him further.</p><p>But Ahsoka could. Any rational thoughts- that she should stay longer and learn more, that a mere dream couldn’t hurt her- were pushed away by a desperate need to be far, far away from that thing. She tore herself out of Barriss’ body and back to reality, a howl of pure terror on her lips.</p><p> </p><p>She had to do something. Now. Not just for Barriss but for everyone.</p>
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